Bayfirst Financial Corp
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
We found at least one documented issue that threatens the company itself — regardless of how the stock is currently valued.
Why this colour
The red rating here is not about the fallen share price but about documented findings in the substance of the business: as of March 31, 2026 the bank's 9.84 percent total capital ratio missed the supervisory threshold for "well capitalized" status, on which $183.9 million of brokered deposits depend; in December 2025 the holding company could not service the interest on its subordinated notes in cash; and since July 15, 2026 the financial statements for 2024, 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, together with their audit reports, may no longer be relied on, while possible material weaknesses are still being evaluated. That is an accounting and controls finding, not a price judgment. The $80 million of fresh capital raised on April 28, 2026 is the right answer to it — whether it is enough will be shown by the second-quarter numbers on July 30, 2026 and the amended filings due by August 12, 2026. Until then the company stands without a reliable set of numbers. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
BayFirst Financial is not a cheap bank; it is a bank in the middle of a rebuild whose ratio merely looks cheap. The $207.7 million of free cash flow over four quarters that lifts it to rank 4 in the price-to-free-cash-flow ranking is the proceeds of a clearance sale of its own SBA loan book — and the quarter that followed was negative. The core business, with twelve branches, $1.09 billion of deposits and a recent margin of 3.42 percent, is real. Alongside it sit financial statements the company withdrew on July 15, 2026, a capital ratio of 9.84 percent below the supervisory threshold, a change of control on July 14, 2026, and $40.1 million of charges that will only become visible with the numbers due July 30, 2026. Not investment advice.
Core business
The regional bank itself works: net interest income rose to $45.8 million in 2025 (2024: $38.0 million), the net interest margin improved from 3.45 to 3.75 percent, and deposits reached $1.18 billion at December 31, 2025 after growing $40.7 million over the year. Twelve branches in a growing part of Florida, 143 full-time equivalents as of March 31, 2026.
Source of income
Noninterest income collapsed from $60.5 million in 2024 to $18.4 million in 2025 and to $0.9 million in the first quarter of 2026 — the consequence of exiting nationwide SBA 7(a) lending in the fourth quarter of 2025. More than half of the previous earnings base disappeared; in the first quarter of 2026 net interest income also fell to $9.4 million and the margin to 3.42 percent.
Accounting quality and controls
Since July 15, 2026, the financial statements for 2024, 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, together with the related audit reports, may no longer be relied on (Item 4.02); the cause was $2.8 million of deferred origination costs and $2.1 million of accrued interest on defaulted loans. Amended filings are expected by August 12, 2026, a clawback review of incentive compensation is under way and possible material weaknesses are still being evaluated — after the annual report of March 27, 2026 had described disclosure controls as effective.
Capital position
As of March 31, 2026, the bank's total capital ratio of 9.84 percent fell short of the 10.00 percent threshold for "well capitalized" status — the condition for $183.9 million of brokered deposits. The holding company held just $769 thousand of cash at December 31, 2025 and added the interest on its $6 million subordinated notes to principal instead of paying it. The $80 million placement of April 28, 2026 addresses this, but only the second-quarter 2026 report will show the result after the announced $40.1 million of charges.
Ownership and dilution
On July 14, 2026, 4,106,905 voting shares became roughly 27 million; a single investor has held 42.38 percent since then and is joining both boards. Authorized common stock rose from 15 million to 100 million shares, and a rights offering for up to 4,108,072 further shares at $3.50 had been filed but was not effective as of July 26, 2026. Book value per share: $15.74 at March 31, 2026, after $22.77 a year earlier.
Hook and data quality
Rank 4 in our in-house price-to-free-cash-flow ranking of the U.S. selection at a ratio of 0.1 (as of July 26, 2026; 544 hits, 25 listed). The underlying $207.7 million of free cash flow over four quarters is arithmetically correct but comes from selling the bank's own loan book; in the first quarter of 2026 the figure was minus $3.2 million. The market capitalization in the data feed reflects the share count before July 14, 2026, so we do not use it here — nor any ratio derived from it.
Worth Noting
Hook and source: rank 4 in our in-house price-to-free-cash-flow ranking of the U.S. selection, measured live on July 26, 2026 (544 hits in total, 25 listed). The scanner lists are recomputed daily, so the placement is a snapshot.
Why free cash flow reads differently at a bank: originating and selling loans held for sale runs through the operating line of the cash flow statement. A lender that stops originating and sells the existing stock produces its largest inflow precisely when it shuts the business down. 2025: $298.2 million of sale proceeds against $285.3 million of operating cash flow; first quarter of 2026: $0.7 million of proceeds and minus $3.2 million of operating cash flow.
Data status and caveat: all figures for 2024, 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 are the official record as of July 26, 2026 but are currently being restated (Form 8-K of July 15, 2026, Item 4.02). Where the restated amount has already been published, it is named.
Banks use their own metrics. The Altman Z-score reported in our overviews for industrial companies carries no meaning at lenders, and neither does enterprise value or price-to-sales. What counts is net interest income, net interest margin, provisions for credit losses, nonperforming loans and regulatory capital ratios.
Risk of confusion: BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN, St. Petersburg, Florida) is not the same as similarly named regional banks in other states. The SEC registrant name remains "BayFirst Financial Corp."; no former names are recorded in the EDGAR history.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at BAFN since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 4.60 $ to 10.50 $ · Last price: 9.00 $ (As of: September 17, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/18/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Banks - Regional
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayfirst Financial Corp BAFN | 0.1 | – | 0.0 | 100.0 | – | -16.8 | 6.2 |
| Mizuho Financial Group Inc. MFG | 135.7 | 17.4 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 46.7 | 10.4 | 70.5 |
| HDFC Bank Limited HDB | 116.5 | 15.8 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 33.3 | 24.3 | -33.2 |
| ICICI Bank Limited IBN | 101.0 | 17.5 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 38.5 | 6.0 | -12.0 |
| U.S. Bancorp USB | 92.6 | 12.8 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 37.8 | 0.4 | 26.3 |
| PNC Financial Services Group Inc PNC | 92.4 | 13.6 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 36.7 | -7.0 | 17.6 |
| Itau Unibanco Banco Holding SA ITUB | 91.5 | 10.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 39.1 | 18.0 | 29.3 |
| Deutsche Bank AG DB | 73.5 | 10.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 33.4 | -8.3 | 11.7 |
| Nu Holdings Ltd NU | 67.3 | 21.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 48.2 | 43.0 | -13.1 |
| Median of companies shown | 92.4 | 14.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 38.2 | 6.0 | 11.7 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year $M
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 20 | 8 | 4 | 1.21 | – | 16 | 152 |
| 2017 | 36 | 11 | 5 | 2.48 | – | 32 | 261 |
| 2018 | 48 | -2 | -1 | -0.42 | 7 | 38 | 365 |
| 2019 | 75 | 6 | 4 | 1.41 | -39 | 51 | 531 |
| 2020 | 134 | 16 | 13 | 3.17 | -108 | 71 | 1,545 |
| 2021 | 63 | 12 | 25 | 6.05 | 101 | 96 | 917 |
| 2022 | 66 | 7 | 0 | -0.09 | 440 | 92 | 939 |
| 2023 | 111 | 8 | 6 | 1.24 | 455 | 101 | 1,118 |
| 2024 | 125 | 17 | 13 | 2.75 | 391 | 111 | 1,288 |
| 2025 | 104 | -31 | -23 | -5.54 | 285 | 88 | 1,300 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 1.69 | 482.80 | 32 | 2.60 | 30.90 | 98 | 98 |
| 2025: Q1 | -0.06 | -140.70 | 28 | -10.50 | -1.20 | 74 | 74 |
| 2025: Q2 | -0.54 | -550.00 | 31 | 2.10 | -4.00 | 63 | 63 |
| 2025: Q3 | -4.71 | -2,716.70 | 17 | -45.40 | -109.00 | 47 | 47 |
| 2025: Q4 | -0.46 | -127.20 | 21 | -34.10 | -11.80 | 101 | 101 |
| 2026: Q1 | -1.54 | – | 17 | -38.60 | -32.60 | -3 | -3 |
| 2026: Q2 | -8.05 | -1,390.70 | – | – | – | 0 | 0 |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 9 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Backtested Scanners
Research
Risk & Weakness
- Below the 50- & 200-SMA
- Near 52-Week Low
- RS Weakness (≤10)
- Stage 4 (Downtrend)
- Stan Weinstein: Stage 4
- Stan Weinstein: Stage 4B-
- Weakness Cluster
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. Scanners marked in red are red-flag signals (risk/short scanners) — appearing there is not a seal of approval. View all scanners
Valuation
What is priced in?
Instead of guessing what the stock is worth, we turn the question around: what free cash flow growth has to happen for today’s market value to add up? The assumptions behind it can be moved.
With these assumptions (discount rate 10.0%, terminal growth 2.5%), no growth rate between -20.0% and 60.0% per year explains today’s market value — the reverse calculation yields no meaningful figure here.
| Free cash flow (last twelve months) | $147.8M |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $59.0M |
| Free cash flow in year ten | – |
| Terminal value as a share of market value | – |
It shows which assumption is built into today’s price, not whether that assumption will hold. Every assumption can be changed with the sliders; the figures move with them.
A simplified model calculation — not a forecast and not a recommendation.
AI classification
AI Rating
Regionalbank ohne KI-Umsatz und ohne konkreten KI-Bezug zum eigenen Geschäftsmodell — künstliche Intelligenz taucht in den sechs ausgewerteten Filings nur als allgemeine Risikofaktor-Formel der Bankbranche auf, in keinem der vier Quartalsberichte überhaupt.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-03-27 · 10-K 2025-03-25 · 10-Q 2026-05-12 · 10-Q 2025-11-12 · 10-Q 2025-08-11 · 10-Q 2025-05-13
Rated on July 26, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years 16.2%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year no data
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year 1.0%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") 256.7%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 38.0%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 0.0%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 186 m net cash
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years 1,135 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago -26.8%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 19.8%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
2/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% 20.2%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% –
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% –
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% –
- Net debt < 4x EBIT –
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight 8
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% 100.0%
- Return on equity > 15% -30.6%
- ROCE > 15% -26.8%
- Expected return > 10% –
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
Insiders
Insider Transactions
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 4, 2026 | McKim Scott Joseph | EVP, Chief Financial Officer | Other | 48 | 6.31 | 303 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | Oliver Robin Leigh | COO | Other | 48 | 6.31 | 303 |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Rogers Alfred Tate Jr | CEO & President | Sell | 691,394 | – | – |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Rogers Alfred Tate Jr | CEO & President | Sell | 22,856 | – | – |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Rogers Alfred Tate Jr | CEO & President | Sell | 279,986 | – | – |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Rogers Alfred Tate Jr | CEO & President | Sell | 148,564 | – | – |
The company
About the Company
BayFirst Financial Corp. ist die Bankholding der BayFirst National Bank, die Community-Banking-Dienstleistungen für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen sowie Privatpersonen anbietet.
- Employees
- 148
- Headquarters
- Saint Petersburg, FL
- Address
- 700 Central Avenue, 33701 Saint Petersburg, United States
- Phone
- 727 440 6848
- Website
- bayfirstfinancial.com
- IPO Date
- 11/20/2019
- ISIN
- US07279B1044
- Stock Split
- 3:2 on 05/12/2021
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Scott J. McKim | Executive VP & CFO | 1971 |
| Robin L. Oliver | Executive VP, COO & Director | 1976 |
| Alfred T. Rogers Jr. | President, CEO & Director | 1965 |
| Brandi Nicole Jaber | Executive VP & Chief Administrative Officer | 1974 |
| Nickolas R. Smith | Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer | – |
| Susan P. Khayat | Executive VP & Chief Credit Officer | – |
| Trey Korhn | Executive VP & Chief Banking Officer | – |
| Adam M. Curtis | Executive VP & Chief Lending Officer | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Filings
Company Filings (8-K)
An 8-K is the filing a US company must use to disclose material events immediately — takeovers, changes at the top, major contracts or payment troubles, for instance. The links open the original document at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- 09/01/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Other Events; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/27/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers: Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/18/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 08/13/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Results of Operations and Financial Condition; Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 07/28/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Regulation FD Disclosure; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 07/16/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Changes in Control of Registrant; Amendments to Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws; Change in Fiscal Year; Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
- 07/15/2026 BayFirst Financial Corp. (BAFN): Results of Operations and Financial Condition; Non-Reliance on Previously Issued Financial Statements or a Related Audit Report or Completed Interim Review; Financial Statements and Exhibits SEC ↗
Data as of: September 17, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.